On Thu, Dec 11, 2025 at 09:07:28PM +0800, Gergő Érdi wrote:
> Doesn't this undermine a lot of the specialization-based optimizations to
> get rid of runtime dictionary passing?
If it does then my idea is dead on arrival for anything performance
sensitive. But why would it? I asked the question because I was
concerned that classes with a single method containing a dictionary
might have performance overhead compared to "unpacking the dictionary"
in the class body, i.e. the difference between Simon's
class C a where { op1, op2 :: a -> a }
and my
data CD a = MkCD { op1Impl :: a -> a, op2Impl :: a -> a }
class C a where cImpl :: CD a
Simon says there is no overhead. What specialization-based
optimizations are you thinking of that may not apply to my version?
Tom
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 21:01 Tom Ellis <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Dec 11, 2025 at 09:15:16AM +0000, Simon Peyton Jones wrote:
> > > Classes with exactly one method and no superclass (or one superclass and
> > no
> > > method) are called "unary classes". And yes, they are still implemented
> > > with no overhead.
> > >
> > > See this long Note:
> > >
> > https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/blame/master/compiler/GHC/Core/TyCon.hs#L1453
> >
> > Super, thank you for the reference.
> >
> > > > I find type classes very difficult to evolve in a way that
> > > > satisfies my stability needs. Part of the reason for this is that
> > > > type classes as typically used don't really permit any form of
> > > > data abstraction: you list out all the methods explicitly in the
> > > > class definition. There is no data hiding.
> > >
> > > That's odd. Can't you say
> > > ```
> > > module M( C, warble ) where
> > > class C a where { op1, op2 :: a -> a }
> > >
> > > warble :: C a => a -> a
> > > warble = ...
> > > ```
> > > and now a client of `M` can see `C` and `warble` but has no idea of the
> > > methods.
> >
> > That deals with one direction across the abstraction boundary: the
> > elimination form. We also need introduction forms as you point out:
> >
> > > Of course if a client wants to make a new data type T into an instance
> > of C
> > > then they need to know the methods, but that's reasonable: to make T an
> > > instance of C we must provide a witness for `op1` and `op2`. So your
> > > teaser is indeed teasing.
> >
> > Right, and once witnesses have been provided for `op1` and `op2`, the
> > client is now coupled to that interface. Here's what I'm suggesting
> > instead:
> >
> > -- | Crucially, CD is abstract
> > module M( C, CD, op1, op2, warble, Ops(..), cdOfOps ) where
> >
> > data CD a = MkCD { op1Impl :: a -> a, op2Impl :: a -> a }
> >
> > class C a where cImpl :: CD a
> >
> > warble :: C a => a -> a
> > warble = ...
> >
> > op1 :: C a => a -> a
> > op1 = op1Impl cImpl
> >
> > op2 :: C a => a -> a
> > op2 = op2Impl cImpl
> >
> > data Ops a = MkOps { opsOp1 :: a -> a, opsOp2 :: a -> a }
> >
> > cdOfOps :: Ops a -> CD a
> > cdOfOps ops = MkCD { op1Impl = opsOp1 ops, op2Impl = opsOp2 ops }
> >
> > And clients can now define
> >
> > instance C T where
> > cImpl = cdOfOps MkOps { opsOp1 = ..., opsOp2 = ... }
> >
> > But I can also provide more helper functions such as these:
> >
> > cdOfId :: CD a
> > cdOfId = MkCD {op1Impl = id, op2Impl = id}
> >
> > cdOfTwice :: (a -> a) -> CD a
> > cdOfTwice f = MkCD {op1Impl = f, op2Impl = f . f}
> >
> > So instances can be written briefly, in a way that is typically done
> > with DerivingVia:
> >
> > instance C T2 where
> > cImpl = cdOfId
> >
> > instance C Bool where
> > cImpl = cdOfTwice not
> >
> > Why do this? Suppose I realise that it is a law that `op2` must
> > *always* be `op1 . op1`. Then `cdOfOps` becomes risky, and I can add
> > a warning to it, deprecate it, and subsequently remove it if I want.
> > Everything else, including `cdOfId` and `cdOfTwice` are safe, and can
> > remain unchanged.
> >
> > There is no easy path if `op2` is a method. I can't add a warning to
> > it, because it's still safe to *use* it and client code will be using
> > it. It's just unsafe to *define* it. Ideally it should be lifted out
> > of the class definition and defined as `op2 = op1 . op1`, but that
> > breaks every client who has a C instance defined, without the ability
> > to provide a smooth deprecation cycle.
> >
> > Anyway, I hope to be able to write this up in more detail in the near
> > future, including the benefits I see we would have had during AMP,
> > Monad Of No Return, and the proposal to remove (>>) from Monad, if
> > this approach had been standard practice.
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